


Vacation

by Wallwalker



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-23
Updated: 2012-07-23
Packaged: 2017-11-10 13:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/466624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quistis can't believe that she agreed to this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vacation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astrangerenters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/gifts).



"I can't believe that I agreed to this."

"I know, Quisty. You've said that a few times." Ellone laughed, stepping out of the rental car and leaning against it. "It's nice, isn't it? I test-drove it myself, to make sure it could make the trip."

"Nice," Quistis agreed. She knows a bit about cars, enough to know how to drive one without killing herself or anyone else, but not enough to tell how reliable a car actually was from looking at the impeccable (and very bright) green coat of paint. "You're really sure you want to do this?"

"Quisty, come on," Ellone says, very reasonably. "I've spent most of my life cooped up in one sort of room or another, okay? I just need to get out. You understand, don't you?"

She shook her head, although she couldn't help but smile. Yes, she knew what that was like; she'd spent more time staring at the wall of her office than she really wanted to admit. Besides, she was probably worrying too much. With everything she'd been through, a little road trip would probably do her good. "Well, we'd better get our supplies together then. We don't want to find out we're out of anything important while we're on the road."

Quistis can't see her former sister's face very clearly, but she's fairly sure that she was smiling a bit too eagerly as she hands Quistis the keys. It reminded her of a few old sayings about cats and canaries. But she was fairly sure she's imagining things, so she took the keys and put it out of her mind.

This was going to be... well. It was certainly going to be something, Quistis thought as she went to check on their supplies. She just wasn't sure what.

\---

"Ellone," Quistis said, fists clenched and knuckles white, a natural reaction after watching a stretch of road rush past them entirely too quickly. "What was _that?_ "

Ellone looked at her, a bit puzzled. Her short black hair was attractively windblown, and she was scrambling to put her scarf back into order, and Quistis couldn't help but think it was cute. Not cute enough, though. "Driving," she said, as if it was really that simple. As if anything that fast and that terrifying could be that simple.

"Driving," Quistis repeated. The adrenaline was dying down now, at least, and she was having limited success in opening her fists again. Not that it hadn't been exciting, but excitement could be a dangerous thing, in her line of work! "Who in the _world_ taught you how to drive?"

She didn't answer right away, too busy putting her outfit back in order. "I didn't learn until I was much older," she admitted, finally brushing her hair out of her eyes, one last time. "I mean, I knew how to handle a small boat, in case I had to evacuate the White SeeD Ship, but that was a little different."

"Yes, but who -" Quistis paused. "Oh, dear. Please don't tell me it was your uncle. I remember how he drove."

"Of course not!" Ellone answered, laughing, and Quistis starts to relax. Maybe it wasn't polite of her, but she really wasn't confident in President Laguna's ability to teach driving -

"All he did," Ellone continued, "was teach me how to _park._ "

It was a joke, as it turned out. But Ellone didn't argue too much when Quistis recovered enough to ask her for a turn at the wheel. 

\---

A few miles down the road they found a small settlement, a crossroad town barely big enough to have a bar and a couple of restaurants. Quistis took Ellone to pick up some ice cream, and paid the bill.

"That was sweet of you, Quisty," Ellone said, smiling between licks of her honey-flavored ice cream. "But you don't have to pay for everything, you know!"

Quistis shrugged. "I'm still pulling a salary from Garden," she said. "Might as well spend it on something, right?"

"Hmm." Ellone stopped eating to look at Quistis, who'd just unpeeled her banana and started to eat it. She hadn't gotten any ice cream of her own. "This is the first time you've treated yourself to anything in a long time, isn't it?"

"You make it sound like a horrible fate, Ellone." Quistis takes a few bites. Not bad, if a bit underripe, but you took what you could get for this imported stuff. 

"Well, it is! You can't be serious all the time! Life just gets boring that way, doesn't it?"

"I suppose," Quistis answered.

Ellone sighed. "Oh, Quisty, please," she said. "It's been so long since we could just spend time together, won't you cut loose? At least a little bit?" 

"Cut loose? What, exactly, do you expect me to do?"

"Well, for starters, why don't we go back in and get some ice cream for you?"

"Ellone!" Quistis protested a bit too quickly. "I don't like ice cream! Besides, it's bad for... I mean...."

They ended up getting her a cone of chocolate, even as she protested. She ate it, of course - no need to let it go to waste, she told herself, as the last of the cream melted (very pleasantly, she admitted to herself) on her tongue.

\---

It's when they're out on the road at sunset that things finally start to click.

Quistis wasn't sure exactly what it was that did it; the two of them had been had just stopped by the side of the road, watching the sunset. Maybe it was Ellone's sleepy head on her shoulder, the soft whisper of her breathing. Maybe it was the bright colors in the sky, the soft summer breeze against her skin. Whatever it was, this whole road trip thing was finally starting to make sense to her, now.

Ellone stirred enough to turn and smile at her. "Look out, Quisty," she said, with another one of those sorts of grins, the ones that showed she hadn't fallen as far from the tree as her uncle might've hoped.

"For what?" Quistis asked, brow furrowing.

"You're starting to _relax,_ " she said softly, eyes wide in mock-horror.

_"No."_ Quistis couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes, you are! A few more minutes and you might start actually enjoying yourself!"

Quistis couldn't help it, then. She laughed, and Ellone laughed with her again, and her arm was wrapped around her back and it felt... nice, actually. Really nice. "You know what? You're driving again tomorrow, Ellone," she said, closing her own eyes for a second. "Just promise me you'll slow down a little, okay?"

She let out a huge, exaggerated sigh. " _Fine,_ " she said, but the giggle she let out immediately after somewhat spoiled it. "Oh, drat."

"It's all right, dear," Quistis said, and reached down to take Ellone's hand. "Firmness comes with practice, you know."

Fine, she finally told herself as Ellone sighed happily beside her. She'd admit it. She really was having fun.

**Author's Note:**

> This one took a lot of rewrites for some reason, but I think I finally got it to work.


End file.
